If you're bootstraped, does that mean you already have something? What is it and why do you want to replace it? Beware of large greenfield remake projects, these often fail spectacularly.
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I'm planning to build a SaaS product loosely in the B2B logistics space - it needs to be relatively low cost to build/maintain, look slick and be extensible.
It would be customer facing, meaning each customer would need a login/account (or perhaps many, if a whole team is using our product).
I've looked at Retool and it looks quite epic but it looks like it's designed primarily for internal apps.
Has anybody used, or attempted to use Retool for a production, user-facing app?
Would really appreciate advice, war stories or recommendations.
I've done a large greenfield rebuild before, which was a success - but I will never do that again. It ate my life.
I do have a bootstrapped product already in the market, but this is a second, unrelated product for a different audience....a new project entirely.
First project is Node + React but considering Retool for a v1 for this next project.
We've got one product in the market, but launching that product and talking to customers has given us insight into a potentially larger, more lucrative problem to solve.
So we're currently allowing idea #1 to tick over, while validating idea #2.
We plan to only focus on one of the two ideas going forward, but are first trying to do enough discovery on idea #2, so that we can choose the best one to take forward.
Some tactical advice is to include in the connection request message: 1) a little explainer about the problem space that you're looking to tackle 2) the fact that you're an engineer (that why they'll know this isn't a sale call)
Normally we do about 5 mins talking about their business, problems and context then dive into a slide deck that pitches our idea.
At the end of the 'pitch' we get feedback from the customer. We also explain that we're launching a pilot, and give them an opportunity to join the pilot.
The pilot is paid (but cheaper than the public pricing will be), and it involves signing a v.simple 1 page contract/agreement which allows us to invoice them ahead of the 'launch'.
For us, this has been incredibly effective at:
- Understanding if this product hits a pain-point that customers are actually willing to spend budget on
- Weeding out the 'weak' signals like 'I quite like it' (people who 'like' it but may never buy)
- Giving us financial/commercial confidence, since we have invoiceable revenue guaranteed
Sometimes, when you find somebody that really gets it, their body language and attitude is entirely different....they literally PULL the product from your hands (vs. you pushing it on them). They're asking questions like "when can we launch/try it", and "can I introduce you to X Y Z people, who are going to love this?". And they say things like "We're budget constrained, but there are tons of things I'd rather get rid of, to make budget for this"....that's the feeling we're looking for, that tells us we're thinking about the right problem in the right way.
Happy to help if you have any more Qs
> It's targeted towards lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, etc. Do you think LinkedIn is a good channel to reach them? For lawyers and accounts - yes - LinkedIn should be pretty great.
For Real Estate you may want to try your luck at walking around estate agents at quiet periods in the day. Some may be kind enough to hear you out and what you'll learn from f2f will be even more impactful.
> Do you also use LinkedIn premium?
I actually use Sales Navigator - it's $80/month, but by no means is it necessary - I wouldn't use the lack of Premium/Sales Nav as a reason not to start the process.
> Have you tried cold emails?
Yes - we sent a bunch using Instantly but got such a crappy response that we stopped. Cold email is dead, IMO.
> Sorry to bombard you with so many questions. Do you have a way to reach you besides HN?
No problem - very happy to help! I don't really do twitter or anything, but happy to chat here as much as you like. Does HN have DM? (sorry, new here)